On 28 September, the Friends of Lancing Chapel held their annual festival. This began with the Annual General Meeting at which His Honour Peter Birts KC OL stood down after nine years as Chairman during which the Chapel was completed against all the odds. The Provost, Bishop Jonathan Meyrick OL was elected in his place. The guest of honour was John Goodall, architectural editor of Country Life, who had published two fascinating articles about the Chapel and the College buildings earlier this year. John spoke entertainingly and informally about Nathaniel Woodard’s mission and motivation and how these are reflected in the architecture of the buildings, with fascinating observations about the artistic influences.
At the Festal Evensong which followed, the Ven Luke Irvine-Capel, Archdeacon of Chichester, preached on the theme of Michaelmas and the choir were in good voice, singing Stanford’s settings and a chorus from Haydn’s Creation. At the beginning of the service, the Golden Book of the Friends was received at the altar. The book was created in 1979 to record the donors and builders of the west wall and rose window. It has now been completed by the calligrapher Caroline Alston who has added the 579 donors to the porch completion campaign and 67 people who worked on the project from 2017 to 2022. As always, the afternoon ended with a sumptuous tea and much cheerful, nostalgic chat.
The Friends of Lancing Chapel is a sociable, enthusiastic and amazingly generous group of people who are greatly appreciated. It cannot be stressed enough how important the Friends are to the College. It now costs about £600 every day to keep the Chapel fit for use and safely open to everyone. And there are expensive additional projects ahead. New Friends are urgently needed. Memorial gifts and legacies can also be made to the Chapel which is a living shrine to so many past pupils and staff as well as ‘the focal point and inspiration for every person who belongs to the family of Lancing.’
– Written by Jeremy Tomlinson, Steward of Lancing Chapel.
